The Process of Directing

Let me begin by saying I've received awesome news in the past few weeks. First, my USC second semester film "One on One" has been accepted into The San Diego Black Film Festival.

You can check out more info HERE. My film also received an Award of Merit in the African American category of The Accolade Competition. 

You can check out the link HERE. I'm waiting to hear back from other competitions and festivals, but it was amazing to receive good news from these ventures. 

My third semester at USC's School of Cinematic Arts has been focused on cinematography and learning the in and outs of rental houses. I'm taking an intermediate cinematography class with Director of Photography, Linda Brown, while working at Panavision. Outside of class, I've focusing on honing my directing chops. I directed a comedy sketch for the group, Wolf Punch Comedy. 

I directed an episode of the webseries, Black Man Depressed. 

Each of these projects are in post-production. I'll have the chance to show them at the beginning of next year. For now, I'm in the production stage of a webseries I'm directing called "Sassy Batman." 

These past few gigs directing have been immensely rich. I've focused on Uta Hagen's "Six Steps", studying character and structural beats, character arcs, motivation, and the proper usage of verbs to communicate with actors. It's difficult putting these techniques into action, especially on set. When you're in the thick of shooting you're usually thinking on your feet. I've found that sitting down with your actors beforehand, and discussing the intention of their characters leads to a smoother actualization of your ideas. 

Giving them objectives for the scene, conscious and unconscious goals, plus asking them ambiguous and direct questions allows them to create a foundation for their role. The best outcome arrives when an actor formulates a new path for a character you didn't realize based on discussion. It's the intimate relationship between directors and actors which shines through these techniques, questions, discussions, and research. 

The process of directing is arduous. It is commanded by an innumerable amount of ideas, provisions, and strategies. Still, there is a large chunk completely dependent upon chemistry, luck, and physical play. During the Wolf Punch's Daisy's Enfeugo sketch, I repeatedly swooned with one my actors to help her feel "dainty." A few shots later I was jumping/high stepping with my actors right before shouting action. I wanted to ensure their pile-drive into the third character felt authentic. There's a set of guidelines towards bringing the best out of your actors, but there are instances when your instinct serves you best. 

Granted, I'm still learning. I admit this. I'm proud of it. I'm growing. Each time I'm on set working with actors I sense growth, a maturity in my direction. I couldn't ask for more. 

Freedom Comes With Preparation: Shot Lists, Floor Plans, & Storyboards

One of the things I hate to hear whenever I’m working with a Director or DP is let’s “free-flow it.” Sometimes this is a necessity if you’re going into a location where you’ve had no chance to scout or see pictures. 

In most instances, it’s the case of the Director and/or DP being lazy. The freedom to try different ideas, shots, and camerawork should stem from a complete understanding of what you need. 

It is assured you’ll hit a point on set where you don’t know the next shot without preparation. Your crew begins to question your vision of the film, scene, short film, etc…

When you prepare beforehand, you give yourself freedom to play on set. When you know the shots you absolutely need it allows you to add, cut, or combine shots after each performance. 

An understanding of your scene gives you the opportunity to play with your actors. You can focus on performance rather than worrying about if the scene will play out correct in the editing room. 

It also gives your crew the reassurance you understand your role as the Director or DP. A crew or cast that doesn’t respect you will not yield positive results. 

In this post I’m sharing a few pages from the shot list, shooting script, and floor plans I put together for a comedy sketch. The entire sketch had an ensemble cast (six actors) plus three separate scenes. It was one location, but we also had the use the same location to “create” a TV commercial to transition into the scenes afterward. 

By the end of the day, after reviewing my entire Director's Book, I had cut four shots, combined two, and added three. I wouldn't have been able to do so without prior preparation. Once I marked all each cut, integration, and addition I handed an extra copy to the producer. 

The final Director's Notebook included character analysis, character and scene beats, shot list, shooting script, and floor plans for the editor. If I'd been more diligent I would've included storyboards and possibly my version of how I'd cut the scene based on the day's work.

More importantly, my previous preparation allowed me to put down my notebook and focus on the actors since I had everything planned out in my head, but I could always reference myself when I was unsure. 

A good director and/or DP realizes freedom comes with preparation. Remember this on your next shoot. 

5 Hour Energy Hero

A few months ago a friend and I decided to partner together for a commercial competition sponsored by 5 Hour Energy Drink. We came up with the idea, 5 Hour Energy Hero, and based our commercial around the concept. It was one day shoot, three day post-production gig, but everything came out smoothly.

Taylor Stephens and I produced the commercial. Taylor directed and acted. I handled cinematography and editing. We didn't win the competition but I'm proud of the work we did.

We are the OwtLawz

One of main recurring themes present in a lot of my work is my connection as a Greek on campus. I'm a man of Omega. This always coincides with me being a filmmaker. You can see some of the first work I did with my camera in older posts.

The campus received quite the introduction on the first week of school when we partnered with Lambda Zeta (The Delta chapter on campus) for our Greek Week. Of course this left me with two jobs, creating the video and concept for the step-tease.

I pulled it off in epic fashion.

Steptease Video

Steptease Show

I'm still in the competition for Humor Hotlines. If you haven't watched The Divorce Hotline help me out! We near a 1000 views, but one other video is ahead of us. There is a lot of money at stake so I can use the support!

The Divorce Hotline

Looks like I'm in another competition folks! This time it's with Humor Hotlines. A few weeks ago I sent in a treatment for the video competition and mine (along with 6 other filmmakers) was chosen for production. The final product is a stylish parody of pharmaceutical commercials and ongoing state of how wacky and misguided divorce has become in American culture.

Our tagline:

Have you ever been so fed up with your significant other's attitude it just made you want to kick a baby? Do spurts of rationalizing homicide against your spouse seem to come more frequently every moment they're around you? It's time to take a stand and say, "My marriage sucks! I need a divorce." by calling the Divorce Help Hotline where all help is 100% free!

The guideline for the competition is simple. Whoever gets the most views wins $750. Whoever gets the most calls to the hotline number gets $750. If you get both its $1500. Everyone who has enjoyed my work in the past take out the time to support me in this competition!

Without you this cannot come together. Add this to Stumbleupon and Reddit. Retweet THIS on twitter. Reblog it and like it on Tumblr. Share the video on Facebook. Anywhere else on the internet that you can think of to share it please do! The contest ends September 30th so there isn't much time!

Thanks in advance I appreciate everyone who keeps up with Que The Lights.